Face It: A Memoir

Anticipating FACE IT has been a long-awaited culmination of possibilities that felt like gorgeous confections we may have never experienced before in the world of Debbie Harry and Blondie. So, being the "lifer" I am, I immediately purchased all media forms of this book. Hell yea, I mean, you gotta support your home team, right?! I've always done that. In fact, I've spent nearly forty years collecting, supporting and promoting Blondie. I even gave my entire personal collection - a lifetime, massive culmination of mint-condition Blondie memorabilia - to Debbie - for her personal archives. When she saw the collection, she stated, "This is probably more than Chris and mine combined." It was impossibly tedious to accomplish after mowing yards and cleaning gutters for years as a youngster to earn that kind of money, but I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life. So, when it comes to Debbie Harry possibly blowing our minds with stories, photographs and facts we've never heard or seen before, FACE IT was to be the epicenter of the who, what, how and why of an absolute American treasure. The unveiling of the Wizard behind the curtain. The running gears of a remarkable rock and roll life finally exposed before our very eyes. And, many aspects of the book certainly fulfill that curiosity all fans have about Debbie's personal life. For example, for the past few years in the press, we read that Debbie's original last name was "Tremble", when, in fact, we learn that it is "Trimble". I know a lot of Trimbles where I live and it jolted me when I read that! They all have those arched eyebrows and bright eyes. The possibility that my friends are related to Debbie was quite the mind-blowing thought. As you venture into FACE IT, Debbie paints the picture of what it felt like to grow up in a society that one would assume no female would dare to aim to be what the Blondie character would become. She went from painfully shy child to fearless warrior in one fell swoop, it seems, while taking-on gritty city life like a champ. Where she got her moxie is a mystery. Of all subjects discussed, Debbie's childhood life unfolds almost politely - carefully - in such detail, it felt like watching a movie of someone none of us knew, but felt like we did. For painful reasons which she discusses concerning her search for her natural parents, I hurt for that little girl at the end of the book. How very, very sad. It brought tears feeling her heart-stopping pain. That door-slamming angst; a lifelong mission resulting in a massive shut-down of her dreams of a happy ending. There is passion in this book: A truly primal love story between Debbie and Chris Stein that defies logic and reason. You can't imagine a more beautiful and astonishing rock and roll love story. They both view their relationship as if neither had anything to do with it. As if it was all fate from the start. It makes one yearn for such a soulmate. There is real substance... and shocking substance abuse... in this book as well. However, even in those moments, Debbie still doesn't delve too deep emotionally. She steers close to the cutting edge, but pulls you back, leaving you to get yourself together as she breezes into another chapter as if to say, "Get over it...". You can really feel Debbie's hand and mind at work in those moments. Admittedly, Debbie has repeated many times over the years that she did not want to engage in the past, let alone share it with anybody. So, there's that side of FACE IT. This autobiography reads much like a diary with curious editing/grammatical mishaps which keep you on your toes if you are a completist about Debbie's career. She includes such personal thoughts as one in-particular that creates an entire chapter about - thumbs. It is a markedly odd and stifling - but curious subject to include when so many other aspects of her life might have been highlighted in such a long-awaited book. One particularly painful moment in FACE IT wasn't a story. It was that, in editing, the art director drew on Debbie Harry's baby picture and distorted her face. That photo was the only truly unseen image of Debbie in this book besides another of her childhood years. It wasn't just rude, it was, perhaps, inexcusable. Being as this was Debbie Harry's one and only autobiography, plus the fact that she is such an intensely bright icon in the music industry/pop culture, one would assume FACE IT would be released as a large, heavy, glossy-paged photo expose' from start to finish. It wasn't. FACE IT, just like Blondie, remains humble in presentation. It made it all the sweeter and more dear. Many times, it feels as if she is almost dismissing the Blondie persona/character as if it were a burden; a constant and heavy mask to wear. One can only imagine that it certainly was. There was so much to live up to since Blondie's incarnation. The few photos included here of Debbie's life revealed little new to the world visually, however, we find that it is a cavalcade of fan drawings that were included with great importance in reference to what her fans mean to her. For all these reasons, this book was unexpected and surprising. Then again, Debbie Harry has continually surprised us. She's always been one to counter the tried and true recipe of what fans expect her to be. Long live the Queen ~

Judging this book by its cover indicates this is bound to be a winner. There is no book jacket for the hardbound book, but, rather, the graphics are printed directly on the book, giving it a wonderful touch of uniqueness. Then inside are 4 sections of professionally done artistic portraits of Ms. Harry along with numerous photos of Debbie and the band interspersed throughout the pages. Finally, there is the crisp easy-to-read text. These visuals promise a lot - a promise I'm look forward to seeing delivered once I have time to actually read the book. Ms. Harry is a wonderful entertainer and I have no doubt her story-telling skills will translate well to this new medium, producing a lively, thought-provoking book.

That is my motto in life and a great lyric from her solo song Get Your Way and how I have always seen Debbie Harry as a person. I am not going to lie I think of her higher as a person that most people I know because her music has been in my life daily for the past 40 years. That is how highly I think of her. To me she is The Lord and we just are lucky to have seen her in our lifetimes.Now did this book change my way of thinking of her- yes. If you have the Making Tracks book from 1982 or the Cathy Che books on her you know the majority of her story and still you never quite get a grasp of who she really is as a person Person. You get the child, the teen , the wandering woman of her 20s trying to find purpose and the woman in her 30s that became the greatest female rock star ever. The groundbreaker, the trend setter, the rock diva, the disco glam girl , the rap star and the movie starlet. A character - a friend to many famous people, a drug user and part time pot seller (that did not get as much of attention as you'd think) and a abuse survivor. And even that doesn't begin to explain her. But yes you see her not being wanted as a baby and how that crept into her lifelong wish for love/family. That is all of us and yet she is still so much more she doesn't go into.I bought the physical book from Powells and it was the signed version and that was quite the challenge to get and the Audio book on cd. I wanted to read her story. When I was a kid I would read the lyrics to Blondie's song like Dragonfly or Victor and think what? But hearing her in action solved all that for me and the reason I bought the audio cd version. She talks to the reader or listener as if she is in conversation. Friend to friend. That part where she explained her reasons for doing the book and trying NOT to do this book was for me the best part. It's her sense of humor that comes out and she hates to do interviews or at least in the States she does. So it took me some time to read and listen to her both times. You feel her quirkiness (thumbs!!!!) and humor (her reason for doing the thumbs chapter) and her being serious all during this book. My hope is that she is financially set for her work that is way more important that most newer acts that get paid off the backs of older acts that actually break ground. Does she own her publishing? God I truly hope so.You get most of her story because she even says she kept stuff to herself and why not. And no we don't think you are being sad or depressing. I cannot say enough of how sad and yet happy it was reading and hearing her tell her story- there were times she added stuff on the audio that was not in the book. And the Fan Art- now which other big star keeps fan art. Now Fan Mail is something else.If as she said in interviews she wants to do more books that I would buy too. And a hearty thank you for Edgar Winter for making her remember her past while seeing in concert. That humorous story of how is she started her way to this book is totally her.Punk - New Wave- Disco- Rap- Reggae- Jazz and yet so much more in store for her music.Read or listen to her life's story and go out and listen to her solo albums which are amazing as well. I just cannot imagine what it would be like to be her for one moment let alone 74 years.K

Amazing memoir from an all-time great. If you like Blondie, this is a must-buy. If you like well-written memoirs from famous punk/pop/new wave singers, this is a definite must-buy. The writing is fun, fast-paced, and filled with facts and information I never knew about, and I've been a fan of Blondie for decades. I read this book in 3 days and did not want it to end. It's that good.

Amei!!

A precious edition in which Debbie describes the obstacles overcome to follow her vocation and express her talent. She still claims being a punk, which might appear curious considering some other punks, far from the sophistication of his most notorious band. Blondie was at the forefront and among the first groups, by their innovations, to break the hippie movement, which was effectively succeeded by the punk one. The first of these social phenomena had a luminous ideal, and perhaps drawing its origins from a mysterious and extraordinary event (see below), summed up by the slogan "peace and love", but which sadly degenerated into "sex and drug" missing at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, as sung in the musical "Hair"; while the second, the punks, starting from a noble anti-system principle ended up generalizing in most cases to an antipathic and presumptuous anti "who is unlike me". To this pathetic "sex, drug", they could have cynically added "and violence" and introduced the pessimistic "no future".I discovered there the existence of 2 obscure songs in 2 of their 1st albums, which she discusses succinctly. Another disturbing aspect to me is the use of hard drugs for at least a long time. She doesn't seem to deny these "unsane" sides, which I don't see the need for, even for fun, and which leaves me a little bit confused. On the contrary, she seems to take her distance from episodes where she behaves in an exemplary manner, but which she takes care to justify by the circumstances to make them normal, while she has great merits in them, as to mask an aspect that may reveal vulnerability. A question of survival? Humility, false modesty or refusal of a self that she did not want to find or rediscover, know or recognize, with perhaps the fear of reduced freedom as well as an impediment to entertainment, a complex mix of all that?The search for and affirmation of an identity, at individual, sexual and artistic levels, is a constant in this memory as in his life. And I found it very interesting thinking back to Pascal and the search for the identity but of mankind through history and the 2 great groups of contradictory philosophies he had identified: the sceptic Pyrrhonians and the dogmatics, as to demonstrate the absurdity to refer man to itself. He concludes that in man there is a part of baseness and a part of grandeur, a sign of our decadence in the sense of fallen beings. And we do not cease to deceive the recognition of our misery by the distraction of vain amusements. We are torn between instinctiveness and sensuality on one side, and, on the other, in its opposite, in rationality of which man is only capable to a certain limit. "In medio stat virtus" or in a 3rd way independent of these extremes, spirituality: irrational and unsensible? And the greatness of man lies in the fact that he thinks, the self-consciousness, which Debbie strongly perceives, the awareness of the Consciousness that I am proposing.Beside to its commendable commitment to the environmental issue, Debbie shows great respect for others, perhaps more than I would. Astonishing, even more for a so-called punk, but the definition of this term remains vague and leaves room for multiple interpretations. A beautiful thought for Phil Spector while he was still alive and in jail or other considerations of a deep humanity. She emphasized a noble habit of Andy Warhol, of which she was the muse, and which I will strive to follow, making me a better man. A photo of her with him could not be missing and she is beautiful, even if it is not my favourite, among other splendid ones, of all the periods, even more recent. With the addition of her portraits drawn by her fans which she preserved throughout her career and exhibited in a sumptuous series. A nice thank you from her for them and from me for her.She enriched the exciting and well-written narration of her life with moving poetry, deep thought on coal and diamonds (which I also had and shared privately with friends years ago), encounters and anecdotes related to VIPs, detailed descriptions of New York, its life, districts, fashions, evolution but also on the mechanisms of show business or others purely engineering ones. She never ceases to amaze but what leaves me most curious are her "para" normal experiences and sensitivity (and I wonder if she knows anything about UFOs...).For my part, over the years and still now after having swept through different musical genres, I like to listen to the Blondie songs old or recent but also to watch their videos where I often found a comic side introduced by this pretty and fascinating woman, oddly enough. An excellent and rare set.Where I think I see her natural and maybe also the happiest is when she participates in musicals: she sings and she disguises herself at the same time, the game she prefers and that she does the best, I believe . One of those music halls really surprised me and made me laugh so much imagining her in her role. Lots of surprises in this book.

La historia de Debbie es muy interesante y y el libro es de una excelente calidad. El diseño del libro me ha gustado mucho.

La lecture de cette biographie m'a beaucoup touché. Au-delà de Debbie Harry, c'est surtout l'histoire du groupe Blondie qui ne pouvait pas être mieux racontée que par son leader. Je n'entend plus les chansons du groupe de la même façon en connaissant maintenant le contexte de certaines d’entre-elles. Depuis la lecture de cet ouvrage, j'ai découvert le talent extraordinaire du batteur du groupe Blondie, Clem Burke, qui est largement sous-estimé à mon humble avis. J'ai également fait la découverte d'une pépite avec le film "Roadie" que je ne connaissais pas.

Bellissimo libro, che tutti i fan di Blondie devono leggere, purtroppo non esiste in italiano. Deborah Harry storia di una vita spesso non facile, il desiderio di creare una band musicale: i Blondie, per poi cercare altre strade, un'altra identità per emergere come solista, come attrice, per poi ritornare a cantare nei Blondie, il suo nome è e rimarrà legato con il suo sogno iniziale. Il libro è pieno di aneddoti curiosi, raccontati dall'ormai 75 enne cantante, bellissimo.